North Korea Threatens Revenge Over Sanctions

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to expand sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launch.

The U.S.-proposed resolution aimed to strengthen sanctions on the Northeast Asian country’s exports.

According to U.S. President Donald Trump, the new sanctions would cost the North Korean regime more than $1bn. The latest sanctions target North Korea’s exports, which are a major sources of income for the regime in Pyongyang.

In response to latest sanctions, North Korea threatened with retaliation against the U.S.

North Korean state-run KCNA news agency called the sanctions ‘violations of our sovereignty’ and stated Pyongyang rejected new talks. The statement also said North Korea will continue to develop its nuclear program, despite growing international pressure.

“We are ready to retaliate with far bigger actions to make the U.S. pay a price for its crime against our country and people,” KCNA reported. North Korea threatened to make the US “pay the price for its crime… thousands of times.”

“The worsening situation on the Korean peninsula, as well as the nuclear issues, were caused by the United States.

“We affirm that we’ll never place our nuclear and ballistic missiles programme on the negotiating table, and won’t budge an inch on strengthening nuclear armament,” said North Korean spokesman Bang Kwang Hyuk to reporters at a regional forum in Manila.

While China said the sanctions were not the goal, it stated its full commitment to enforcing the latest round of UN sanctions. Russia and China have vetoed a previous resolution calling for new sanctions against North Korea, but both countries now called Pyongyang to stop its missile tests.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said: “The best signal that North Korea can give us [is] that they are prepared to talk would be to stop these missile launches.”

However, previous sanctions have failed to prevent North Korean from continuing its missile development program.